Battered Banks

To the Editors:

Your report on the troubles now confronting American banks [ECONOMY & BUSINESS, Dec. 3] points up the risks of deregulation. Generally, deregulation is laudable, but it never should have been applied to banks. Deregulating banks cancels out the valid reasons for having some form of cost, safety and volume control over the money supply. Deregulation in this case will become a monster and a lighted fuse.

Alton R. Dahlstrom Rossland, B.C.

The problems in the banking industry may adversely affect all Americans. Nevertheless, I derive satisfaction from watching the bankers suffer. For so many years they treated customers with disrespect. Now, with increased competition, perhaps bank officers will realize that being polite makes good business sense.

Gregory R. Weaver Chicago

Your story presented a one-sided view of the banking business. No mention is made of the efficient manner in which the industry moves billions of dollars daily or of the major technological advances banks use to hold down costs and reduce needless float.

Nancy D. Halwig Evanston, Ill.

I do not understand your indignation over banks' earning money by charging for services. In the retail business we call that making a profit.

Robin A. Fisher Rochester

Your story quotes a financial consultant as saying, "Banking is going into the free-enterprise system out of a protected environment." Free enterprise is what is ruining the banking industry. It has killed the safeguards and ended the longest period of bank stability in our history. Banks are different from other businesses. They are supposed to be a safe repository, an alternative to the mattress and cookie jar and a stable pool of cash that can be called on to fuel the nation's economy. Banks should be the underwriters of the nation's financial security.

Milton A. Bergson Skokie, Ill.

It is strange that some people find fault with the increasing use of automatic-teller machines. I find them as warm as some of the tellers, more accessible and usually more efficient.

Richard J. Woodland Solon, Ohio

Your analysis of the banking problems between American lenders and Third World borrowers is doubtless admirable, but for me incomplete. It fails to mention Ogden Nash's "One rule which woe betides the banker who fails to heed it,/ Which is you must never lend any money to anybody unless they don't need it."

Robert Krause Binningen, Switzerland

Man of the Year

Bishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa, a brave and noble voice from an almost forgotten continent.

Anna Mary Meehan Shrewsbury, NJ.

Indira Gandhi, the late Prime Minister of India. She was a giant who made her opponents, detractors and critics look like pygmies.

Ramesh Chettri Bombay

The Viet Nam veterans represented in Sculptor Frederick Hart's monument. Theresa C. Girardi Fond du Lac, Wis.

Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega Saavedra and all the Sandinistas.

Walt Windsor Baltimore

The African woman, who bears Africa's economic decline most heavily.

Hume A. Horan

U.S. Ambassador to Sudan

Khartoum

Mordechai Bar-On and Mohammed Milhem, whose tour together across the U.S. earlier this year demonstrates that peace between the Israelis and Palestinians is possible.

David L. Blatt Chicago

Attorney Lawrence Washburn for his battle to protect the rights of the crippled Baby Jane Doe.

Robert B. Saxon Monessen, Pa.

Clara Peller, the lady behind "Where's the beef?"

Joseph F.J. Curi Torrington, Conn.

Bleak Future

Your article describing Jean-Franc,ois Revel's thesis on the demise of democracy [WORLD, Dec. 3] has unnerving implications. Inevitably, democracy's extinction will come about because of its inherent fairness. If, on the other hand, democracy competes with Communism by using Communist tactics of aggression and hostility, then a democracy can no longer justifiably call itself democratic. No wonder Revel is pessimistic about the fate of our form of government.

John P. Houde Hanover, N.H.

Solzhenitsyn has warned us, Sakharov has warned us and now Revel warns us. The Soviets are eating away at the free world, yet our naive politicians would have us "negotiate" while the Soviets continue resolutely to carry out their quest for world domination.

Catherine Mueller Albuquerque

Diplomatic Demur

In your story "Undiplomatic Support" [NATION, Nov. 5], you say that 23 U.S. ambassadors, including the envoy to Mexico, endorsed Senator Jesse Helms of North Carolina. With the exception of my obvious support for President Reagan, I have not endorsed any candidate. In accordance with White House policy and the Secretary of State's guidelines concerning partisan political activity by ambassadors, I have not given, nor will I give, any candidate authority to use my name for partisan political purposes while I hold this office.

John Gavin

U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Mexico City

Senator Helms' campaign staff presumed Ambassador Gavin supported Helms after Gavin sent a letter wishing Helms luck in his re-election bid. Helms' office apologized to the Ambassador for its error.

Baby Fae's Fate

The ethics applied in the case of a baboon heart for Baby Fae demonstrate the strange logic behind medical practices in this country [ESSAY, Dec. 3]. Terminally ill patients who would willingly give their consent to be released from their anguish are kept alive through extreme, demeaning and often painful measures. But a helpless infant can be experimented on without her consent. Perhaps the time has come to revise the Hippocratic oath to deal with the contradictions raised by scientific advances.

Bayla Schimmel Northbrook, Ill.

I deeply resent Charles Krauthammer's implication that all who believe in the rights of animals are eccentric. Animals have as much right to survive as man. They were not placed on earth solely for man's use or benefit. Experiments like the Baby Fae case serve the egocentric attitudes of scientists and doctors who operate under the guise of benefiting mankind. Animals are not "less superior" creatures, nor are they stupid. Only man strives for and deserves that dubious honor.

Janet Gillis Ewen Alexandria, Va.

Contraception and the Pope

I applaud the Pope for reaffirming the Roman Catholic Church's stance on contraception [RELIGION, Dec. 3]. I chastise those who adopt the "cafeteria Catholic" attitude of choosing the beliefs that satisfy their secular and hedonistic desires. No one said that being a Catholic would be easy.

Randall A. Borow Urbana, Ill.

God set forth in the Bible that mankind is to "be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth." But with millions starving throughout the world, maybe the Pope should consider whether God's directive has been reached.

Lloyd Nolan Stroudsburg, Pa.

The church finds governments responsible for hunger and poverty yet persists in encouraging family sizes that cause these conditions.

Ian Lambert Haddon Township, N.J.

Fortunately, most Catholics ignore the Pope's teaching on contraception. The sheep are wiser than their shepherd.

Bernd Ballmann Horb am Neckar, West Germany

Frost Family

I agree that William Pritchard's book on Robert Frost [BOOKS, Nov. 12] succeeds in restoring a positive, plausible view of the man who gave us great narrative and lyric poetry. But as Frost's granddaughter, I must protest the reviewer's harsh tone in depicting my grandfather's handling of family tragedies like his son's suicide. Your review resurrects Lawrence Thompson's literal-minded pseudopsy-choanalysis that I thought the Pritchard biography had laid to rest.

Lesley Lee Francis Arlington, Va.